Message of the Perfect World

The extent to which jealousy rules our world is often grossly
underestimated. There is a lot of disparity. But forget about it
(though it will still linger in your subconscious). Even when there is
no disparity, envy exists on the basis of perceived disparities. Take
the case of your own siblings. Suppose both you and your sibling were
given the same gift. Same in size, color and features. Think of the
ways that still exist for you to quarrel or envy. The other sibling got
the gift first. The other sibling’s personal preference was considered
in choosing the gift. The other sibling received the gift with love/ a
smile. The other sibling would find the gift more useful. Even when
both siblings got the same gift, they had perfectly valid reasons for
envy. So envy exists. Now suppose all these causes for envy were
considered and both siblings were allowed to choose a gift of their
choice. Still there are reasons for envy: The other sibling had to wait
for a shorter time to get the gift he/she had in mind compared to me
who has waited for years. The other sibling knows where to choose what
(has better information) and hence will end up with a better choice.
The other sibling is in a better state of mind to better choose a gift.
The other sibling can buy the gift of his/her dream with the available
cash but you cannot. There are still more reasons. But what I am trying
to show here is that we do not see the enormous power of envy in our
lives. How much ever fairly we are treated, there is still room for
perfectly valid reasons to envy the other person. Envy can lead to
hate. This leads to violence and destruction. It’s as simple as that.

As we have seen, envy can spring up anywhere! It can end in violence
and destruction. If so much envy exists in a fair and equal scenario,
how much more envy will be existing in this vast and varied world with
people of different age, sex, society, culture, race, nation, financial
background, personal histories, jobs, interests, desires, thoughts,
feelings, sorrows, needs, inclinations, education, local communities,
religions, beliefs, … etc. There will be a million and more reasons for
envy. In the case of age: ‘I should have had it at his age’ In the case
of sex: ‘It’s a male suited gift’ In the case of society: ‘That society
is too rich already.’ Between nations: ‘That nation has enough
resources already.’ Financial background: ‘He’s been gifted all his
life while I really deserve it.’ And so on… Sometimes the envy is
justified. Often it is. Building upon it into hatred and consequent
destruction is what happens on a global, national, state, society or
family scenario.

Between individuals, small reasons for envy destroy the peace between
them. You just have to be better looking or better fed or better
clothed or better in any manner to evoke envy in the other person. All
this happens often without your knowledge and when you sense the hatred
building towards you, you have the feeling that something evil has been
lurking in your friend’s mind. Something that even he may not be aware
of. And he already has built up an arsenal of verbal hints and jabs
ready to hurl at you. He even has a plan of action according to which
he is sure to hit you, one way or the other: physically or
psychologically. Often psychologically, but in more ways than one. His
plan of action (POA) ensures that, when executed, his POA will hit you
psychologically in as many areas as possible, if the hatred has built
up to such an extent. Otherwise, he might just be content with hitting
you once and he may not mind where exactly you have been hit. The funny
part is: He may not even be aware that he is the strategist, overseer
and executor of such a complex psychological warfare in which he seldom
loses because of the absolute stealth involved. And this happens almost
everywhere and at all times. Its scale depends on the magnitude of envy
he feels. Almost everyone has a miniscule psychological war with almost
everyone he or she knows. Often it is harmless. But it still has the
potential to be a full blown psychological war. And from there, it is
not very far to the real war nor is it any different from it.

The person is often not aware of the psychological warfare but pain
makes him realize the real war. But the real war is not what should
concern us, as is the case now. What we ought to be concerned with is
the little psychological battles based on envy that we execute each day
and carry forward to the next. More correctly, what we ought to be
concerned with or recognize the potential of, is envy. Of how
prevalently it exists. Of how easily it can spring up. Anywhere.
Anyplace. And the consequent harm we do to others. If we don’t
recognize it, our minds will continue to build arsenals of hints and
jabs, strategies and plans, executing one after the other at the right
place and the right time so as to inflict maximum damage and satisfy
our envy. For the time being. The crude thing about envy is that it
doesn’t end till the other person’s quality or possession that caused
you to envy him/her is completely destroyed.

Envy destroys good, the destroyer thinking of nothing but the satiation
of his envy. Even then, the envy doesn’t end, for as we have seen in
the beginning, there is no dearth of reasons to envy anyone. You can
envy anyone. From there, you can hate him. And from there, you can
destroy him. Verbal jabs, undue criticism, spreading of false rumors
and lies, persistent nagging, being a spoilsport and so on are the
methods most commonly resorted to by most of us to destroy the person
we envy. There is a lot of damage done, often irreversible because it
is psychological and affects relationships.

Now, why do we start these psychological wars that do no good? Our own
feelings of insecurity, our fears of being ignored, of being
unappreciated … of being worthless, in short. It all springs from a
sense of worthlessness. And how does this worthlessness feeling come
about? When you do not receive the attention you need, when you are not
given what your body and mind needs without repetitive asking for it.
When you have to be loud and aggressive to get what you need or want.
All this makes you feel WORTHLESS. When you have to be good looking to
be taken seriously, when you have to accept group opinion and let it
rule your life, when you are forced to discard you opinion because it
is not popular, when you have to live your life the way others tell you
to rather than the way you want to … All this makes you feel WORTHLESS.
In short, when there is not enough in this world for you and when you
have to be self centered, mean and heartless and grab what you want if
you wish to survive. If there was enough for you in this world, you
wouldn’t have to crave for attention, food, shelter, love, good looks,
acceptance by the group, discard your beliefs and way of life to
survive. It is the lack of resources (or money) that deprives you of
attention, food, shelter, love, etc., and pressurizes you to be good
looking, acceptable and submissive to the will of others, finally
giving you a low sense of self-worth, making you feel worthless.
Feelings of worthlessness lead to feelings of insecurity. One’s feeling
that one is worthless automatically makes the person feel insecure, and
feels prompted to protect/secure oneself, hence starting psychological
warfare by stacking up verbal arsenal in our minds to protect/secure
ourselves and sometimes preemptively. It is the source of every war
fought in human history, not just the verbal arsenal used in the
psychological warfare, but the feelings of insecurity that caused it.

As stated in the UN constitution, an end to all wars must begin with
the human mind because it is in the minds of men that the defenses of
warfare are constructed. Envy begins in the mind, but it was a feeling
of worthlessness caused by a lack of resources that put it there. A
lack of there not being enough for every human being born into this
world is finally responsible for the massive power of envy continuing
to rule our lives. Lack of resources (money) for every human being born
will cause more envy and hence more wars, less peace, not just in the
bedroom, but also in the battlefield. As a start, we can begin by
preventing the birth of children into poverty. Let humans not be born
into a lack of resources for their needs and survival. Let there be
fewer reasons for envy. Life should be only as much as can be
sustained. Laws preventing unsustainable life is the only hope of
humanity. Preventing the birth of children into poverty will result in
a far-reaching sweep-out of all evils affecting mankind and the removal
of major obstacles in the path of his progress.